By Donna Westfall – July 21, 2022

When the price of one of our favorite foods – Avocados – goes up, up, up, we’re wondering about growing them in Del Norte County. We’ve started many from seed. We have beautiful trees, but no fruit.

I’ve been told that people do actually have fruit bearing trees in this County, although I have never seen any. Articles say that after five years, they should start bearing fruit. But that’s not happening to ours. Other articles state it can take up to 13 years.

Do we need to graft scions (a young twig of a plant used for grafting) and keep our fingers crossed? Probably.

Meanwhile Haas is my favorite, but there’s also Fuerte and many, many other varieties. Did you know there are over 500 different varieties of avocadoes? They vary in size, shape, texture and maturity rate.

Of the 500 different varieties, there are three main types tracing their origins to Mexico, Guatemala and West Indies.

Then something I just learned, there are “A” type and “B” type cultivars. The difference lies in the opening times and pollination behaviors of the avocado tree flowers.

For example: Avocados are partially self-pollinating through a process called dichogamy. A-type flowers bloom as females in the morning and shed pollen as males in the afternoon. Haas is an A type. Oppositely, B-type flowers receive pollen in the afternoon and shed it in the morning. Fuerte is a B type.

Meanwhile, we’d be happy if our trees just burst out with flowers.